Up Against the Wall
by SureThingsFall
Summary: AU. Emily is tired of what her life has been lately but isn't given too much time to think about it as time pushes on. JJ is late for auditions and dealing with a mess of a personal life. Henry is just adorable as always; what will happen when the elevator stops?
1. Running Late

Emily sighed as she pushed against her desk to roll away. As far as she was concerned, even though this day had technically just begun, to her, this day was beyond over. She had spent all her time writing lately; her mother just didn't stop talking about it, and locking herself away to write was a lot easier to deal with than her mother's constant nagging.

She never really wanted to be a writer. She'd always thought of herself growing up and ending up going into the FBI, or maybe psychology; maybe working her way towards the Behavioural Analysis Unit, but certainly not becoming a writer. It all started with her winning a few awards in high school and her mother never let it go, and now she was _here, _an office away from her condo, writing what would be her next novel that would follow her bestseller. The bestseller that was soon to become a movie, another thing she didn't particularly want to be involved in.

As Emily packed up her notebooks and laptop she couldn't help but wonder how things had ended up this way. It wasn't that she was unhappy, but maybe unfulfilled would be the word she would use. She loved the creative process and exploring emotions and personalities, she liked thinking that she was able to connect to the people who read her books through those characters, and she would be foolish to disregard how lucky she had been in the industry. But as she made her way down the dimly lit hallway, she couldn't help but think that there was meant to be more. Here she was, leaving her office at 8 in the morning, after having spent the entire night there writing, to go to the auditions for the lead roles in 'her' movie and that would suck up her entire day, leaving her to go home to her apartment that had no one but her cat waiting for her. If she had have gone through with even becoming a police officer, or did make it all the way to the FBI or BAU, what would she have accomplished in the same space of time? She could have saved lives or solved a mystery; but in this life she wasn't even going home to anyone special.

She made it to the building where the auditions were being held and parked in the underground parking. Slinging her bag over her shoulder and checking the time on her watch, she sighed and sped up at little on her way over to the elevator. She was going to be late, but there wasn't really much she could do about it now.

She got in the elevator when it finally got there and jabbed the button for the 3rd floor. Which, as she thought about it, was ridiculous because it seemed like it was only one floor that simply sunk down into an auditorium with the full stage and seating. What would happen if she pressed the button for the 1st or 2nd floors? Would she be greeted with a cement wall when the door opened?

She was about to laugh at herself when the door opened. Well, that answered her question; definitely not a cement wall. She offered a polite smile to the blonde woman entering the elevator with a small blonde boy who she assumed must be her son. She figured they must be here to support someone auditioning, as she was already late, so she gave up thinking about it and resumed her position, arms crossed and staring a whole in the floor when the tiny metal box lurched and caused her to slightly stumble.

She glanced around to see both of the blondes still standing, the mother had her eyes closed in frustration…or sadness, she couldn't quite tell. The boy just looked a little lost, like he wanted to help but didn't know what to do.

Giving the adorable little kid a small smile, she reached over the button panel to hit the button for help, only to sigh when she realized nothing was happening. She wondered if the whole building had lost power or something, but weren't those things to still work? She pulled her phone out of her pocket to confirm her theory that there wouldn't be any service in the elevator anyway. She took a chance to search for a wifi network, but still came up empty.

Putting her phone back in her pocket she leaned back against the shiny silver surface of the wall and slid down to the ground. She was almost positive that after spending the whole night awake that being in the quiet and cool little elevator was the last thing she needed. If they didn't get out soon she would surely fall asleep.

The little boy mimicked her actions against the opposite wall and stared at her with a thoughtful look on his face before glancing up to his mother who was practically pacing in the small area with her eyes still closed, seemingly off in her own little world. He held out his hand with determination that Emily found absolutely adorable "I'm Henry Jareau."

Emily couldn't help the wide smile that spread across her face when she heard the little guy try to pronounce his last name. "Nice to meet you, Henry. I'm Emily Prentiss." She offered her hand while he tried his best to give a firm handshake and she tried to discreetly look up at the pacing woman "You think your mom is going to be okay, Henry?"

He shrugged and scooted across the tiny amount of floor space to sit beside Emily and lean back into the corner. "I think she had another fight with Gramma. And she's late for her audition. And she had to bring me with her; I don't think she likes it when I have to come."

"Well you don't seem like much trouble." She ruffled his hair and pulled her phone back out of her pocket. "Wanna play Angry Birds?" He seemed rather delighted with the idea so they scooted closer and Emily held the phone between them while they took turns firing birds off into the sky. There wasn't really much else they could do with their time. Emily was grateful that out of all the people to get stuck in a small space with, the lady wasn't too crazy and the kid was very well behaved for his age.

They played through a few levels before both of their heads shot up when the pacing woman began to audibly freak out, kicked off, of course, by the "Oh my God!" outburst that had grabbed their attention.

"Ma'am….Ma'am" It didn't seem to grab the woman's attention, so Emily took a moment to study the woman. She was definitely pretty and she couldn't be sure but she didn't really seem like the type that would worry like this often, at least not externally. Her tired mind kept sending Emily's eyes over the blonde, appreciating her obviously very good looks and admiring that she had at least taken her son with her rather than leaving him alone; she had met a lot of people willing to do crazier things for fame.

She felt a tug at her sleeve and looked down "Her name's JJ."

She looked back up to the woman while she mumbled on about missing a great opportunity and a number of other things that Emily couldn't quite decipher. "JJ…"

That seemed to do the trick as the woman finally looked down to see her son basically leaning against a strange, yet gorgeous, woman that she apparently hadn't acknowledged up until now. "I-uhm-I'm sorry…who are you?"

She cringed a little, "I'm so sorry. I didn't mean for it to come out like that." She shook her head and held out her hand "I'm Jennifer…sorry about all this; bringing all my crazy and everything…" She gestured around to where she had been pacing.

A friendly laugh escaped Emily as she took the other woman's hand "Don't worry about it. Henry and I have been keeping busy."

It was then that JJ saw the iphone between the two and her eyebrow involuntarily quirked, but Emily didn't seem to miss a beat, offering a playful smile and patting the ground next to her "Don't worry, you can play too."

She rolled her eyes as her son giggled and slid down the wall next to the brunette. Might as well do something while they were stuck there.


	2. Frazzled

Emily sat there with the iphone in her hands while her, JJ and Henry continued to take turns playing the game. She could feel Jennifer's eyes on her every once in awhile and finally managed to catch her in the act, raising a perfectly sculpted brow at the blonde woman to silently question the constant looks. She could have sworn that a faint blush made its way to the woman's face.

"I uhm," she shook her head and offered a smile "you just seem familiar, that's all. I'm sorry if we've met before or something; it's just been a really exhausting day already..."

"And I'm now beyond late for my audition, and I wasn't even sure about coming in the first place. My friend just got me a shot and said it would be a really great opportunity but I just - sorry - you don't care about all this. I just get carried away when I'm nervous."

Now she was definitely blushing and Emily thought it was adorable. She tried to keep the smile off her face as she gently nudged the other woman's side and feigned shock, "Jennifer! You don't remember me?! I really thought we had something special!"

JJ looked flabbergasted. Her mouth opened and closed as her eyes were wide with panic and Emily could no longer stop the huge smile that spread across her face as she playfully nudged the woman again "So it's a possibility, huh?"

"I...what? How'd you know that?" She certainly wasn't ashamed of liking women, but not everyone was open minded and she _was _stuck in an elevator with this woman. She had learned that it's never a good idea to trust anyone right away and, come to think of it, she didn't even know this woman's name.

"Well, you looked panicked, like I could have been..." Her eyes darted to Henry before smiling "an _acquaintance _at some point, and you didn't immediately deny that it was a possibility, which seems like it would be a go-to reaction, especially given that we're both women. All of which leads me to believe that _we_" she threw in a wink for good measure "were a possibility."

JJ helplessly stared at the dark haired woman, thinking she should probably be at least a little upset with this impromptu character assessment, but she found it oddly attractive that this beautiful woman was clearly so thoughtful. She wasn't going to admit to any of that though, denial and being stubborn seemed like a far better option.

"How do you know that I'm not just too distracted by my missed audition to be thinking clearly?"

Shit. Now she was thinking about the missed opportunity again. That plan backfired. Luckily, or unluckily, Emily seemed to pick up on that and offered a slightly kinder smile, although JJ could still see a hint of playfulness there.

"So you really don't know what you're auditioning for? Aren't people usually supposed to come...prepared or something?" There wasn't any judgement in her voice, just genuine curiosity and a hint of friendly teasing and JJ couldn't help but sadly chuckle.

"You mean the audition I _was _ going to have? I've actually been too caught up with other stuff lately that I haven't had much time to think about work, so my friend...she does makeup and wardrobe work...anyway, she told me that I had to come today and she'd prepare me and get me an audition spot. I think she might have mentioned what it was for at one point but it's slipped my mind; it could be for a commercial for all I know. I suppose it doesn't really matter much now though."

"You never know, it could be for a big movie or something. I'm sure you'll still get a chance to audition."

JJ light heartedly scoffed at the notion as if to say it's ridiculous that she would get the chance after showing up this late and without hesitation Emily matched her scoff with a reassuring look that somehow made JJ feel slightly better. Not all the way though, she was still certain she didn't stand a chance.

"I'm showing up..." She looked down to her watch, "_at least _an hour late, with my son with me. I can't even blame it on the elevator because if I had have been on time in the first place then I would have already been sitting up there waiting when it stopped."

Emily wanted to just ease JJ's frustrations but she could tell that she was dealing with a stubborn and determined woman so she'd have to go about this in a different way.

"How about I watch the little man here while you have your audition that I _know _you're going to get?" She could tell that the blonde haired woman was going to protest and held up her hand with a friendly smile "we'll be right in the audience where you can see us the whole time and no more arguing about the audition. You'll get one, I'll even go so far as to promise."

Emily finished with a wink and JJ looked between the confident woman and her son. Henry, who had capitalized on the two women being distracted to be the sole player of angry birds, had looked up when he had heard "little man" as it was something he was often referred to. He wouldn't mind sitting with Emily while his mom worked. She had been nice to him and let him play a game on her phone, and he'd be able to see his mom while being out of the way.

Henry was giving her his best puppy dog eyes with the matching pout with his best innocent voice "Please, Mom, can I go with Em'ly? I'll be really good, I promise!"

By the time JJ had finally sighed an "I guess so", the elevator was humming back to life before there was a clunk and a jolt as the metal box once again began its ascent. JJ was thinking about why it felt like she knew the dark haired woman from somewhere, why the name Emily sounded familiar as well as how it fit the woman so well, and questioning herself about why she hadn't even asked the woman's name herself.

When the doors finally opened, they were greeted by a tall dark man impatiently tapping his foot who seemed to lighten up at their appearance and a few guys that looked like they had been working on getting the elevator up and running again.

"Sorry about that, ladies. Right this way," He offered a charming smile and gestured for them to come out of the elevator.

He shared a quick hug with Emily, who he had already met during previous meetings about the production, and subtly gestured to her companions.

"Oh! Derek Morgan, this is Jennifer Jareau, she's here to audition, and Henry here," she affectionately ruffled his hair "is here to keep me company."

JJ couldn't help but feel a sting of disappointment in her stomach when she watched Emily get embraced in a tight hug by impressively muscled arms; and how did she know her last name? And Henry's name? Had she missed a whole conversation on the elevator?

"Well the auditions started quite a while ago, your name was probably already called..." Derek shot her an apologetic look before Emily interrupted.

"She would have been here on time but she was helping me."

Derek looked her over skeptically; she only had one bag slung over her shoulder and she had been to the building multiple times, she wouldn't have gotten lost. Emily simply shrugged and Derek shook his head before leading JJ to the waiting area and making the necessary arrangements for her to have an audition while Emily and Henry made their way to where Emily needed to be. Derek was left wondering why this woman was really getting special treatment and JJ was left wondering the same, assuming that the man she just met was obviously someone in charge and that him and Emily must be close. Maybe that was why Emily had promised her that she would get an audition?

She shifted slightly under the gaze sent her way from the darker man as he filled out some paperwork for her. She didn't really blame him, she did show up late, with someone who was clearly involved somehow with the production and still without a clue as to what she was auditioning for.

* * *

Henry silently took in his surroundings before turning his attention to Emily "Thanks for hanging out with me Em'ly. These are cool seats!"

Emily smiled at the little boy and pushed down a seat for him "No worries, little man. They are aren't they? Ready to watch some people audition?"

Henry nodded and jumped up into the seat and talked with Emily about what the actors and actresses would be auditioning for. She could tell he wanted to ask another question as he looked at her and around at the stage and people milling around doing their tasks, there were only a small group of people around them that were sitting and they all seemed to have clipboards and notepads.

He finally adjusted his little body to be facing her and had a look of concentration on his face "What do you do, Em'ly? Are you one of the judges?"

She smiled at his association of talent show judges with the current group assembled to choose who would make it through to callbacks. "Something like that. All of us here," she gestured around to the small group of people around them "get to work together to decide which actors and actresses will get to be in the movie."

"You need all these people just for that? What do you do when you choose? What do you do after that?"

Emily laughed at his adorable confusion and smiled at him. She was glad that he was interested in how everything worked, it reminded her of her younger self and how curious she was to figure out how everything worked.

"Well...most of us have other jobs that we do afterwards. Derek, the man you met earlier, is the director. We have a few of our tech guys here, a few of the ladies from makeup are around somewhere, our art director, a few consultants...they'll all still be around after auditions are done to do other things. They just help offer their input since they'll be working closely with the people that get chosen to fill the parts."

Henry seemed to think about her answer for a while before looking around the group again and resolutely nodding "Cool."

His head cocked to the side as his eyes once again narrowed "But what do _you _do after?"

She had to hand it to the kid, he was definitely smart. She couldn't even imagine what his mother must go through when he asked difficult questions. "Well, I'm like a consultant."

"What's a cons-all-ont do? I thought you said there were other consultants."

One of the makeup girls seated in the row in front of them took this as an opportunity to turn around, clearly less patient with his persistent questions. "Emily wrote the book. She gets to make sure everyone is doing what she wants so it's like the book." She offered a tight smile and turned back around in her seat.

Emily rolled her eyes before turning to the little boy beside her whose eyes were wide with excitement.

"It's YOUR movie?!"

She chuckled at his enthusiasm before explaining what all she was responsible for and that was wasn't actually there to boss people around, just offer her opinion on how she thought things should go based on what she envisioned while writing it.

Derek came back a few minutes later, stepping over the row of seats to take the spot next to Emily and flopped down into the theatre seat.

"So, Princess, you wanna tell me what the real story is with you and Blondie?"

"My Mom?" Henry's head poked out from around Emily as she swatted the man's chest.

Derek looked a little shocked at the boy's presence, clearly not having paid attention before sitting down. The stress of everything they had to do lately was starting to get to him and Emily couldn't really fault him, she wasn't at the top of her game either.

Henry just took it that that was his cue to continue and went on to tell Derek about his morning with his Mom and then getting stuck in the elevator with Emily and getting to play Angry Birds and set a new high score.

* * *

"YOU'RE LATE!"

JJ jumps as a blur of colour rushes by and sits down next to her.

"You better have a darn good reason, gumdrop. This a fantastic opportunity; a chance to be a goddess among mortals! Not to mention you'd get to be in the the general vicinity of all the awesomeness that is Penelope Garcia on a daily basis."

"Hi to you too, Pen." JJ says looking back at her friend in amusement "This script seems so familiar..."

"Well it should! You've only read the book like a million times! Why aren't you prepared for this?!"

JJ's brows furrowed in confusion as she looked expectantly at Garcia, waiting for some sort of explanation that she was obviously missing out on.

"JJ, honey, sugar..." She placed her hand on the smaller woman's shoulder and gave her a sad look "You're not the brightest accessory in the dive drawer today, are you?" She flips the booklet in JJ's hands closed and motions to the title "That doesn't sound off any alarms? You can't think of any other time you've seen a title like that?"

Damn that small title, JJ squeezed her eyes shut. "That Thing" That Thing. That Thing. It was unique, yet subtle. How did she not recognize it? She absolutely loved the book. Oh shit. Her eyes shot open.

"Oh my God! OhMyGodOhMyGodOhMyGodOhMyGod. Garcia!"

"What? Tell me what you need, Buttercup. I can't help if you're just sitting her cursing deities."

"Pen" She groaned out, stretching it out as long as she could before dropping her head in her hands "I can't believe this. I can't go up there now. I just can't." She sat back up just to let her head fall back and she briefly stared at the ceiling before closing her eyes again.

"Still not making any sense here, Goldielocks."

"I got stuck on the elevator with Emily freaking Prentiss and I didn't even realize it until now."

Garcia's eyes widened and she fangirled in her seat before realizing her friend was still freaking out and tried to think of something to say that would make it better.

"Well, she doesn't really get her picture out there all that often; and you've been super busy; and you're...you. It'll be fine, my darling!"

"What do you mean 'I'm me'?" She mimicked with an incredulous look "And it will not be fine! I was in a tiny little metal box with the woman for the better part of an hour and basically told her that I was late for an audition that I didn't know what it was for and now she's sitting out there trying to do her job while babysitting my son!"

It seemed like she might be on the verge of hyperventilating by Gracia had other concerns at the moment. With eyes wide, she jumped out of her seat and dashed around the corner, peeking out into the audience area before coming back into the room, arms flailing and wearing a smile a mile wide "Oh my, Sugar Honey Iced Tea! Little Henry is hanging out Emily freaking Prentiss! They look super adorbz together!" She squealed in excitement as JJ cringed.

How on the good green Earth could this be happening.


	3. All Scream for Ice Cream

A/N: All fluff! I don't really have any drama planned for this, but I don't really plan on it being very long either. So if you have any thing in mind, just let me know before it's too late! I make no promises, but will probably do my best to incorporate anything that you feel is missing. Enjoy, and stay frosty!

* * *

"Can you see?"

Emily looked down with an amused smile to the little boy next to her who was moving side to side in his seat while sitting up as straight as possible with his little neck stretched to it's limits. She was assuming this was another one of his shy moments, there was a certain silent confidence that he seemed to have that shone through some moments and disappeared in the next.

He shook his head and turned to look when Emily got his full attention. Nodding her head over towards her and Derek, Henry got the hint and climbed over the arm rests onto Emily's lap and situated himself before stretching out again; he still couldn't see. Emily watched in amusement while the little blonde haired boy huffed and crossed his arms. She leaned forward to whisper in his ear and he perked up in excitement until he turned around and noticed that Derek was no longer there and had moved a few seats down to talk to someone else. He couldn't climb onto the tall man's shoulders if he wasn't where he was supposed to be; he wanted to stay by Emily, they were in the best seats.

Emily saw his disappointment when she turned to realize that at some point Derek had moved. When the sad little puppy dog eyes of Henry met her's she knew she didn't really have a choice about what she was about to do. She nodded her head towards the back of her chair while helping the little boy up.

"C'mon, I'm not as big and strong as Derek but you can sit on the back of my chair with your legs over my shoulders and you should be able to see that way."

* * *

JJ was now certain that she couldn't go through with this audition. She had already made a fool out of herself before even stepping foot out onto the audition area and now she couldn't even run away because she'd have to face Emily at some point; the woman had her son.

Garcia had tried her best to calm the woman down before she got called away but didn't have much luck, leaving the other blonde only slightly less frazzled. She was up next and as she peeked out to view the actress currently auditioning the light caught on a certain little boy's blonde hair and a huge smile threatened to split her face.

There, her love and joy was sitting with his legs dangling over the brunette's shoulders, both wearing big smiles as they both held clipboards. From where she was standing she could see that Henry was trying to explain something to Emily, he had his clipboard held out mere inches in front of the writer's face as he pointed to various things and JJ could only imagine what he had come up with and was trying to now explain.

It gave her a warm and fuzzy feeling, but as soon as the feeling had come, it had died back down; she was auditioning for what could be the role of her life, acting out one of her favourite books, working with a woman she had, admittedly, had a large celebrity crush on...and said woman was playing with her little boy after she showed up late for the audition...it just seemed worse and worse every time it ran through her head again.

Now her name was being called and she exhaled a calming breath, or her best attempt at one and stepped out into the stage area.

'_Might as well go for it now'_

* * *

Emily and Henry both seemed more focused as they watched Emily came out. She looked extremely nervous and Emily didn't know if it was normal or not but she wished there was something she could do to put the other woman at ease. Henry, however, knew that his mom typically wasn't shy nor did she usually get nervous about auditions.

That changed though. Emily watched as something seemed to pass over the woman and it was almost like JJ had dropped everything and was able to get into character in an instant.

It was amazing to watch and it would be an understatement to say that Emily was simply impressed. She was almost beginning to wonder if this was the same woman that she had been trapped in the elevator with. She wasn't nervous or jittery, her hands didn't shake; she was calm, collected, reciting the lines without even reading them from the script, and this was supposedly the woman that had shown up with her 3 year old and didn't even know what she was auditioning for?

She was still in a daze as a little hand wrapped around her shoulder to give her what she assumed was supposed to be a more gentle shake.

"Wasn't Mom awesome?!"

The pride could be heard in his voice and she smiled and agreed. She certainly was awesome, among many other things that passed through Emily's mind as she became more and more intrigued in the mystery that currently was Jennifer Jareau.

* * *

JJ was, of course, the last one to audition and quickly collected her things and was making her way out to find Emily and Henry when Garcia swooped in with a massive bear hug.

"That was positively fantabulous my beautiful, beautiful gumdrop! So good. Like, award worthy."

A small blush spread across JJ's cheeks and she bashfully smiled.

"I don't think it was _that _good, Pen. But thanks. It wasn't _horrible_, so hopefully that counts for something."

The exuberant blonde scoffed and playfully pushed the other blonde's shoulder.

"It was great and you know it! Someone else knew it too" She grinned and winked at the now flustered woman as she gestured with most of her body to the brunette currently playing some sort of game involving paper balls and the back of Derek's head.

JJ grimaced as her bouncy best friend began dragging her towards the woman that she was now certain thought of her as a fool. She smiled and offered a shy wave as they approached and she cleared her throat.

"Thank you again, Emily. You really didn't have to! Were you a good boy, Henry?"

The little boy grinned and nodded his head.

"I got to help Em'ly!"

"I know one of the Jareaus would end up with their name in lights!" Garcia grinned and winked at Henry.

Emily grinned and even JJ had to laugh and shake her head.

"Aunt Penny! Mommy was awesome!"

Everyone was grinning now with the exception of JJ, who was blushing and looking down to the ground with a huge smile on her face.

"Can we go get ice cream now?"

As far as Henry was concerned, no one was saying anything so the previous discussion was over and it was time to move on.

JJ looked up in confusion, not only because the change in subject caught her off guard, but she didn't remember telling her son that they would go for ice cream. Her eyebrow involuntarily raised as she looked up to a grinning Henry and Emily, both looking like they were trying a little too hard to look innocent.

Henry was the first to break under his mother's gaze and bounced on the heels of his feet.

"Me and Em'y had a contest and I won!"

JJ and Garcia smirked, knowing the kid had an uncanny lucky streak and glanced between the two.

"And what was the contest, gumdrop?"

"We had to - we each had a bunch paper balls and, and the goal was over D'recks shoulders into his cup! And the loser has to buy the winner ice cream! Any flavour!"

Henry saw the look on his Mom's face and quickly stuck out his bottom lip as he looked up to her.

"Please, Mom?" He asked, dragging out the please as long as possible.

Garcia found the opportunity to be too good to pass up and shuffled over to crouch down next to Henry and joined his pouting protest.

"Yeah, please, Mom?" She grinned and Emily quickly caught on, moving close to the other two and pouting as well, trying her best to keep the smile off of her face.

"We'll be extra good! And it's any flavour for the winner _and _his Mom!" Now she couldn't stop herself from grinning and JJ just sighed and slumped her shoulders in mock resignation, as if she wasn't happy with the idea of going to get ice cream with her son, best friend and her...new friend?

"Fine. You bullies win; I guess we're going to get ice cream."


End file.
